Sunday, February 17, 2013

Our first vacation outside the country with Edward is in the books. We spent nearly two weeks mixed between South Florida and an Eastern Caribbean cruise aboard the Ruby Princess. Edward spent nearly half of his eighth month outside of Canada.

On the vegan end of things, it went pretty smooth. One night on the cruise ship, I actually had a personally prepared meal by the chef at the Crown Grill restaurant. Normally, the Crown Grill is a restaurant not included in the meal plan and requires an additional $25 a head. However, as part of a wedding party, our dinner for one night was at this fine restaurant.

My only issue came before the cruise at a Taco Bell near our hotel in Hollywood, Florida. The Comfort Inn had enough issues which will be discussed at a later date. The Taco Bell next door had the issue of a counter person unfamiliar with the product he was selling. I wouldn't normally eat at Taco Bell anyway, but when travelling in a group... Anyhow, it turns out the potato burrito that I ate in fact contained ground beef. I have the comfort in knowing that there probably was minimal actual meat included in the burrito.

Anyhow - this article wasn't meant to be a bitch session about Taco Bell and the Comfort Inn. I just wanted to share the videos that I've edited and posted to YouTube so far.

The title is a bit dramatic on this one. True, the alligator did seemingly cross a decent sized pond in the Florida Everglades just to maybe find a meal in Edward. In the background, you can hear Eddie babbling. There are many other people along the boardwalk but this gator came right to where Eddie was sitting in the stroller. Of course, the gator wouldn't be able to get at Eddie as the boardwalk was raised above the water. However, it was pretty spooky.

And - if it was Yahoo, the headline would read something like 'Hungry Gator Hunts Down Defenseless Child'.

Princess Cays was our first stop on the cruise, after leaving Port Everglades, Florida. Contrary to what Princess Cruise Lines says, this is not a private island. Princess Cays is a private beach owned by Princess Cruise Lines located at the southern tip of Eleuthera Island. Eleuthera is part of the Bahamas and is a long (180km) and thin (2-4km) island with very few permanent inhabitants.

Somewhere out in the Atlantic Ocean, I took this video from the back end of the Ruby Princess. It's just a short video showing the sides of the ship and the back end. The video is taken from the Star Deck (Deck 19). This floor of the boat is little more than a running track, basketball court and mini-putt. The wind, as it was on this day, can be quite hurricane-like from this position.

The first 'real' port of call was Philipsburg, Sint Maarten. This quick video is from the Sun Deck aboard the Ruby Princess with views of the other docked cruise ships and the beach across Great Bay.